A JETTY has been installed on Windermere without permission from South Lakeland District Council, a meeting heard.

Company director Stavros Neocleous won planning consent from the national park authority and Environment Agency to replace a dilapidated jetty at Louper Weir, Newby Bridge Road, fronting onto England’s longest lake.

However, SLDC owns the lake bed and its lake administration committee has complained that no agreement to ‘encroach’ on its land was signed off before the jetty was built.

Committee member Cllr Keith Halltsch, of Windermere Town Council, told the meeting: “I hate retrospective applications – it’s been built now. I’m not against jetties, I know that people need jetties, but I do think we need to keep them under tight control.”

Louper Weir on the A592 south of Bowness, is let by a holiday company which describes it as a ‘luxurious detached property on Millionaire’s Mile’ with its own private shoreline and jetty.

The committee discussed whether it had the authority to order for the jetty to be pulled down.

Linda Fisher, SLDC’s legal adviser, said: “You can either grant the application or refuse it and notify the applicant of the outcome. It’s a matter for members what you want to do.”

Cllr Doug Rathbone suggested it stay and that the committee writes a letter to the applicant ‘strongly’ expressing its disappointment that the jetty was installed before all permissions had been granted.

“It appears to be a genuine oversight, but that is not quite the point,” said Cllr Rathbone, the committee chairman.

Cllr Pete Hamilton, of Windermere Town Council, said: “I think in reality for millionaires, these letters don’t mean toffee, do they? They know the laws and have got bags of money.”

Papers before the committee said that the applicant was ‘unaware’ that the jetty had already been installed and blamed a ‘breakdown in communications with the sub-contractor’.

An architect representing the applicant submitted a statement to the council, which said it had been working at the site for four years and it had been a ‘steep learning curve’ to get to grips with ‘local policies and requirements for permits’.

It added: “Unfortunately, in this instance, something slipped through the net.”

A report to the committee pointed out that the applicant had ‘sincerely apologised’.